Stretchable, Foldable Electronic Devices Can Soon be a Reality

12/19/2018 3:24:05 PM

Engineering researchers have developed a stretchable smart fabric that can be produced on a standard printer. This amazing stretchable electronic fabric can be folded and put in one's pocket without breaking.

This fabric can be used to create ultra-thin smart tablets that can be easily shrunk or stretched, rubber band-like wrist monitors to measure heartbeat, or even wallpaper to transform an entire wall into an electronic display!

Using this fabric, the first stretchable integrated circuit has been created using just an inkjet printer. This technology can make it possible to produce flexible electronics at costs comparable to printing newspapers.

This smart fabric is made up of several materials produced from nano materials and organic compounds. Electronic inks are produced by dissolving these compounds in solution. These inks are then run through printers to make the devices.

From this electronic ink, engineers have successfully created the elastic fabric, the integrated circuit and the organic light-emitting diode, or OLED. The next step is to combine the circuit and OLED into a working pixel in order to create a display.